I meant for this chapter to be completely different, but there was one scene I had arbitrarily planned that wove its way into this. But we finally hit 100k! I didn't think I was capable of writing something so long, but here we are. I'm very happy with what I've written so far, and I can't wait to share more with you all.
Without further ado, enjoy ;)
"Don't say it," Marinette's voice was muffled by her arms, which she had folded on the table with her face buried in them.
There was a pregnant pause, and then in came those dreaded words. "I told you so."
Marinette lifted her head to glare at Alya, who sat across from her with an amused smirk on her face.
Last night's revelation took more of a toll on Marinette than she had anticipated. It took her hours to fall asleep, and although that was most likely due to her and Chat's midday nap yesterday, her racing thoughts did nothing to ease her mind. She had laid in bed well past dawn, partly to snag some more sleep after her restless night, but mostly because she had no idea where to go.
She thought about heading to her and Chat's clearing, but if he wasn't there, she would grow bored very quickly. If he was there, well, she wasn't sure what would happen.
Now that she accepted the fact that Chat was not just a friend to her, she had no clue how to proceed. She could act like they always did, banter and joke with him like nothing had changed, but after last night, she wasn't sure she could do that.
They had a moment last night. A real moment. It wasn't something she could just brush off and forget. No, they had been toeing the line between friends and more for so long, and it felt like they had finally crossed it. They were both aware of what they were doing, they both moved closer to each other, and with the way that Chat was looking at her…
She really thought he was going to kiss her.
On the lips.
But instead, he veered off to her cheek, and that somehow left Marinette feeling both giddy and frustrated at the same time.
Her paradoxical emotions were making her want to pull her hair out, and for once, Marinette admitted to herself that she couldn't deal with this alone. She didn't know how, and that's how she found herself at Alya's door, the first words leaving her mouth being, "You were right."
Now, at Alya's kitchen table, Marinette buried her head back into her arms. Alya leaned forward and reached out to prod at Marinette's elbow. "You can't hide in there forever."
"Yes I can."
Alya laughed. "Well, if you came here to talk about it, I'm all ears, but if you just want to wallow, I'm going to go run some errands."
Marinette groaned and raised her chin to rest on her arms. She didn't know where to begin. She didn't even know how much she should tell Alya.
Luckily, Alya's entire role in the revolution was to sniff out information, and since Marinette was now more receptive to talking, she was set on retrieving it. "We're gonna try this again, okay? Do you have feelings for Chat?" she asked directly.
Marinette let out a soft sigh and nodded.
Alya's eyes sparkled as a grin spread across her face. "Are you and him," she motioned her hands in Marinette's direction, "together?"
Marinette dropped her gaze to the table and shook her head. Then, her eyebrows furrowed. "Well…" She let out another groan and buried a hand in her hair. "I don't know! Maybe?" She looked at Alya as if she had the answer, but she just stared at her with raised eyebrows.
"Okay," Alya said, dragging out the word slowly. "What makes you think you might be?"
An image of Chat, inches from her face flashed across her mind. Marinette bit her lip as she contemplated saying this part out loud. "I think…" Just bite the bullet Marinette. You came here for help. She exhaled deeply, letting the words fly out before she could stop them. "I think Chat almost kissed me last night."
Alya's eyes blew wide, and she slammed a hand on the table, startling Marinette and causing her to shoot upright. Alya was absolutely dumbstruck, her mouth gaping as she stared. "What do you mean you think?!"
"I-" Marinette brought a hand a few inches from her face. "He was right here! We were just staring at each other, and I thought it was going to happen, but then he went for my cheek."
"Then why didn't you kiss him?"
Marinette wasn't exactly sure why. She was absolutely frozen during that moment, not a thought in her mind but feeling so many emotions she had never felt before. Now that she had time to think about it, she didn't take the initiative because all of this was still so new to her. Her feelings for Chat were completely unfamiliar, and she had no clue how she was supposed to deal with them. "Because I've never done it before," Marinette said, and her eyes turned helpless. "This has never happened to me, Alya, and I don't know what to do with myself."
Alya gave her an empathetic look. "That's okay. Everyone has to go through it for the first time. I was super nervous, but then I found out he was too. Neither of us knew what we were doing, but that didn't stop it from happening naturally."
Marinette eyed her curiously. "Are you talking about… you and Nino?"
A light pink dusted Alya's cheeks, and it was Marinette's turn to be amused. "That's not relevant." She cleared her throat. "Look, my point is maybe he's in the same position as you."
Marinette fidgeted with her hands on the table. "So," she glanced up with a nervous look in her eyes, "you think he feels the same way about me?"
Alya's face turned incredulous. "Are you kidding me? You just told me he almost kissed you."
Doubts crept into Marinette's mind, muddling her sense of what happened. "Maybe I just misread things. I mean, Chat has always been super charming, and sometimes flirty, but maybe that's just his personality. I mean, he kissed me on the back of my hand the first time he met me! He's probably just-"
Alya was waving her hands in front of her, shutting this down immediately. "No, stop that right now." She fixed Marinette with an intense stare. "Listen to me. I've known Chat for a few years, and Nino has known him for even longer than that. He's fun, he's friendly, he's a social butterfly! But people don't get close to him." Marinette's fidgeting stopped, instead focusing on listening to her words. "He's very independent, and I know you must have clocked that when you first came here."
She had, and that was part of the reason why it took her so long to be able to trust him. There were many mysteries about Chat, and although she had gotten some partial answers, there was still so much she didn't know about him.
Alya continued speaking. "Honestly, Nino has always been the closest to Chat. From what I've heard, Chat has been through a lot. Like, a lot, at least in the time Nino has known him, so I think it's hard for him to let anybody in."
Marinette had heard something similar from Nino as well: He's seen some shit. She didn't know how much he had experienced in his life, but it was enough that he held it close to him, never letting anyone know the true extent of what he'd been through.
"If you want to know how he feels about you," Alya continued, "then tell me. Has he let you in?"
Marinette considered this for a long moment. Chat had kept her at a distance for a while, but lately, the tide was turning. He brought her to his secret place, his safe space, and he took her into the treetops to share with her his love for the sun. He was vulnerable with her about his insomnia, and despite the fact that he was a workaholic, he chose to take an entire day off just to spend time with her.
He wouldn't do that for just anyone. Chat had started letting her into his world, whether he was aware of it or not.
Alya waited patiently for her response, and Marinette gave a slow nod. Alya's face softened. "See? Whatever you and Chat have, it's not just his personality. It's not just how he is. He cares about you. He was absolutely furious when Rhino attacked you! And his face when you two were dancing, maybe you couldn't see it, but I've never seen him look at anyone the way he was looking at you."
Marinette let Alya's words sink in, her doubts slowly fading from her mind as she let herself believe what Alya was telling her. She knew all of this. She had noticed all of these things about him, but her confusion about her own feelings distorted her perspective. Alya didn't beat around the bush, and she spelled it out for her in a way that Marinette could accept as the truth.
Chat had feelings for her too, and he'd been showing her that for some time now.
Marinette's heart fluttered in her chest at the thought. She nodded again, letting Alya know that she understood now, but at the same time, a bundle of nerves tightened in her abdomen. "What am I supposed to do now?"
Alya gave Marinette a gentle smile. "I can't give you a step-by-step, but don't avoid him. The two of you got this far on your own, and I'm sure you'll figure it out. Just enjoy the ride."
Even though she didn't receive any of the direction she was looking for, Marinette was comforted by her words. Alya couldn't tell her what to do, but she could point her in the right direction, and that direction was towards Chat.
Marinette sat with her back against the apple tree, a book propped up on her thighs. She bit into the crisp apple in her hand, the juicy flavors helping to quench her thirst.
Chat wasn't there to give her a boost up to the ripened fruits, so she spent a good twenty minutes trying to climb into the tree. The branches higher up were too weak to stand on, so she had tried to pull them towards her and ended up whacking herself in the face a couple of times. Frustrated, she resorted to violently shaking a branch until three apples snapped from their stems and plummeted to the ground.
The book in her lap was something she picked up in the Compound on her way back from Alya's house. She figured if she was going to wait for Chat in their clearing, she might as well have something to entertain herself with in the meantime. It was a nice distraction, not just from her blossoming love life, but also from the fact that her training was starting again tomorrow.
Nino caught her before she left Alya's and reminded her of this. Her vacation had gone by so fast that she hadn't even realized. Apparently, Nino had consulted with Chat that morning, and they decided it would be best if Marinette continued to live in the North and commute to her training in the East.
She didn't have a problem with this. She liked having her own tent and her own space, but she hoped that it wouldn't affect her acceptance amongst the soldiers. There was nobody in the South that she had called a friend, but she wanted this to be different in the East. She wanted a fresh start.
Still, she needed to be careful. She wasn't sure how far the rumors about her had spread, and she prayed that the soldiers in the East were either oblivious or just didn't care. Besides, she needed to be cautious about how she interacted with Chat if he ever came by, and she needed to nip any rumors in the bud the second she caught wind of them.
Chat's face with his stupid, adorable lopsided grin flashed through her mind, and she realized her eyes had been scanning the page, but she hadn't read a single word.
She sighed. Just enjoy the ride. If the ride meant that she couldn't go a half hour without picturing him and his gorgeous face, then she wanted off, because she was becoming really concerned about how she was going to focus tomorrow.
For the next hour she read, tasking herself with staying invested in the building world of the novel and not straying off to thoughts of him or worries about tomorrow. She actually did pretty well, and in what felt like no time she had made her way through half of the pages. A long, thick strip of grass grew an arm's length away from where she sat, and she plucked it to use as her bookmark.
Her eyes looked past the top of her knees to the forest leading back to the North. It was quiet, outside of the occasional rustling of leaves. Suddenly, a twig snapped, and she watched in anticipation as something made its way through the trees.
A squirrel jumped out into the clearing, standing up on its hind legs and sniffing at the air before scurrying away.
Marinette's shoulders slumped. She resigned herself to the fact that Chat wasn't coming, at least not any time soon. There was no blaming him for that; he had a lot of duties around the revolution and a lot of people who probably needed his assistance. She was certain his job entailed much more than she was aware of, and his day off yesterday had probably set him back.
Her joints were stiff as she stood and stretched her arms above her head. She opted to leave the book on the ground for now, next to the two uneaten apples and her apple core.
The next couple of hours were spent back at Alya's house having dinner with her and her family. It was then that Alya decided to tell Marinette that she was leaving for another trip at the end of the week. It had been nearly a month since Alya came back with the news about Squad D, and she was finally ready to return to her job. She promised that she would say goodbye before she left, and Marinette was going to hold her to that.
The sun was just starting to go down when Marinette set foot in her and Chat's clearing once again. He wasn't there, and she tried her best to keep her disappointment at bay. She walked over to retrieve her book, but as she approached, she noticed something peculiar.
There were three apple cores laying on the ground, not just one. She furrowed her eyebrows and glanced down at her book, where a small, folded piece of paper stuck out of the pages alongside her grass bookmark.
Marinette crouched down and pulled it out, unfolding the paper and reading the surprisingly elegant cursive handwriting on the note:
Looks like we missed each other. Feel free to stop by my tent.
Her eyes roamed over the words a couple more times, the corners of her lips lifting into a smile. With a newfound pep in her step, she grabbed her book and quickly made her way back to the North. She dropped the book off in her tent and opted to reapply some of her face paint and redo her ponytail. Once she was ready, she headed out towards Chat's tent.
About thirty feet away, another soldier walked into her line of sight. He didn't appear to notice her as he strode straight to Chat's tent and ducked inside. Marinette's steps slowed, and she was unsure of what to do next. There was no way she could go in there; that would be too suspicious. She considered turning around and waiting until the soldier left, but she wasn't sure how long their conversation would take. The soldier could leave at any moment, and if she walked away now, she wouldn't know for sure whether or not he was gone.
Deciding to linger, she putzed around in the vicinity of the tent, glancing up every minute or so. Enough time went by that she was growing impatient, and she found herself staring at the tent with her arms crossed in front of her. If she had a watch, she would be checking it incessantly by now.
She blew out a puff of air. What on Earth could they be talking about? Since Chat had invited her over to his tent, she knew this visit from the soldier wasn't planned. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she glanced around before she slowly sidled up to the tent.
A few feet from the entrance, she was able to make out Chat's voice. "My mind isn't going to change." She stopped in her tracks, nervous about getting any closer and being seen.
"You're making a mistake. We need this kind of information," the soldier said, obviously frustrated.
"It's not worth the risk," Chat said evenly.
The soldier scoffed. "It was before! Otherwise you never would have sent them!"
"And we both saw how that turned out." Chat's voice had a bit of an edge to it, and Marinette's eyebrows furrowed as she picked up on the seriousness of the conversation. She wasn't quite following yet, so she listened closely as they continued.
"My troop is ready. We're prepared, and we can do it differently this time!"
"No, I'm not wasting any more lives on this," Chat said, much more firmly, and Marinette's pulse quickened as she realized they were talking about Squad D's mission.
The soldier's voice rose as he spoke. "We knew what we were signing up for when we joined, and we're all willing to put our lives on the line for it! If we come up with a new plan-"
"I'm not having this discussion with you!" Chat was sounding like he did on the night of their argument. This wasn't his voice; this was the voice of the revolutionary leader. His tone was assertive as he continued. "There's no coming up with a new plan if we don't know what went wrong the first time! We've already tipped off the royals about us, and sending any more men could compromise us even further!"
"So, what, they just died in vain?! For nothing?!" The soldier was angry, and before Chat could respond, he blurted out, "If you had just told us how you broke into the castle the first time, maybe they'd still be alive!"
Marinette's eyes widened, and she waited with bated breath as a deafening silence followed the soldier's words.
When Chat finally spoke, his voice was low and barely audible to her. "Get out." The soldier must have tried to say something else, but she didn't know what, because Chat repeated himself much more loudly this time. "Get out! Now!"
Marinette dove behind the tent just as the soldier stormed outside. She didn't move a muscle as he passed, and she waited until he was well out of sight to allow herself to breathe normally again. She brought a hand up to where it felt like her heart was about to beat out of her chest, trying to process what she just heard.
It sounded as though the soldier wanted to complete Squad D's mission, but Chat wouldn't let him. She understood why, but what she didn't understand was why the soldier was so angry about it, and that last part…
If you had just told us how you broke into the castle the first time, maybe they'd still be alive.
She had no clue what the circumstances around Squad D's mission were, but she knew one thing: the soldier had crossed a line. Chat's reaction said it all. She couldn't comprehend what drove the soldier to say something like that, and she began worrying about the impact those words had on Chat.
Her feet were rooted to the ground as she tried to think of what to do next. She could walk away, pretend to be oblivious to all that she just heard, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Her mind was full of questions, but what spurred her to finally move towards the entrance of the tent was a need to know if Chat was okay. He was alone in the tent now, alone with his thoughts, and if he was anything like her, she knew enough time would allow them to start spiraling.
She carefully opened the slit in the canvas and peered inside. He was facing her, his hands braced on the end of the table, and his eyes were closed with his fingers restlessly tapping the map spread out before him. This was her last chance to walk away, to not pry more into his other life as the revolutionary leader, but she didn't take it.
Marinette cleared her throat, announcing her presence. His eyes shot open, and whatever irritation that initially crossed his face instantly vanished as he realized who it was. He straightened up from the table, his posture relaxing as he plastered an easy-going smile on his face. It was his "I'm fine" act, but he couldn't fool her. She had seen it too many times to not recognize it immediately.
"Hey," he greeted. "Did you get my note?"
She nodded. "I did, and I also saw that you ate the rest of my apples."
He raised his eyebrows. "You abandoned your apples for over an hour, and I didn't want them to go to waste."
"How would they have gone to waste if I was coming back?"
He gave a small shrug. "A deer could've gotten them. I was making sure that didn't happen."
She opened her mouth to retort before catching herself. Their banter was distracting her, and she resisted the urge to keep going. She shook her head to herself. "Nevermind that. Did I come at a bad time?"
His smile faltered. "Why would you think that?"
Her expression turned slightly sheepish. "I may have overheard some of your conversation with that soldier."
Chat blinked. Then, he averted his eyes, pressing his lips together as he thought for a long moment. He cleared his throat. "Well, that was a glimpse into what my day's been like."
Marinette bit her lip. That explained why he was missing all day. She was hesitant to press him about it, but she knew that if she ever crossed a line, he would shut her down immediately. Maybe if she was tactful with her words, he would talk to her. "Are you okay?"
His response was instant. "Yeah, I'm fine." She made a face, and he gave her a questioning look. "What?"
"You always say that."
For a brief moment he appeared taken aback. "Maybe because it's true?" He gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm okay, don't worry about me. This is just part of the job."
Her mind flashed to Chat as he broke down against the apple tree. No, he was still putting up his facade. He wasn't the same in the weeks that followed Squad D's death, and she knew the impact that had on him ran deeper than he would ever let on. After enough time he had improved, and his happy mood lately had been genuine, but she was certain that conversation had reopened those old wounds.
The soldier's words, blaming Chat for what happened, there was no way he was unaffected by that.
Her disbelief must have shown on her face, because Chat's smile faltered again. He exhaled heavily, and she could tell he was trying to come up with something else to say to convince her.
She spoke before he had a chance. "You don't have to lie to me." He looked like he was about to protest, but she held her hand up to stop him. "Just listen." He pressed his lips together, and she took a moment to plan out her words. "You're a great actor, Chat, but you can't fool me anymore. I know that there's a lot you're not saying, and I understand why. It's easier that way, and I think you've been doing that for a long time." She took a step closer to the table, and he continued to stand across from her, his eyes never leaving hers. "But I want you to know that I'm here for you. I'm not going to make you talk to me, but the option will always be there. I care about you, and I want to know if you're okay, even if the answer is no."
Chat swallowed thickly, and his eyes dropped to the table. His face was conflicted as he considered her words, and she waited in silence as they continued to hang in the air.
He opened his mouth to speak, hesitating before he finally did. "There's just a lot going on in my mind right now."
"Is there something in particular that's troubling you?"
His eyes scanned the map before them. "Yes, but…," he searched for the words to say, "I don't know how to articulate it."
Marinette moved so she was standing off to the side of the table, and Chat remained in his position at the end. He was starting to open up, just a little, so she remained cautious with her prompting. "Does it have to do with your conversation with that soldier?"
Chat nodded before sighing deeply. "He's a troop leader. Back when I first started training Squad D, the logical part of me thought it would be a good idea to have a backup troop. You know, just in case…" He trailed off, waving a hand in front of him and letting her interpret the rest of his sentence. "That was his troop, and he's insistent on completing their mission."
"But you won't let them go." Chat affirmed her statement with a nod, and she continued. "Why?" She had already heard his reasons as he laid them out to the soldier, but she wanted him to tell her.
Something behind his eyes flickered, an emotion she couldn't identify. It didn't help that he still wasn't looking at her, but she waited patiently for his response. "There's a lot I could say, but if I'm being honest?" He looked up at her then, still with that unidentifiable look in his eyes. "I don't think I can handle another senseless killing. Or maybe worse, they get captured, tortured for information, thrown into that awful dungeon until they lose their minds, and for what? Maybe I cared about the mission at one point, but now? It's worthless compared to the value of their lives."
His answer was different from what he told the soldier. It was more heartfelt, and she knew he was telling her the real reason he wouldn't let them go. "And you explained all of this to him?"
Chat sighed. "In a way, yeah. But he's hell bent on going regardless."
Marinette kept her voice gentle as she asked, "Is that really the part that's troubling you?" Chat pursed his lips, averting his eyes again. His silence prompted her to continue. "I heard what he said at the end." Chat winced, almost imperceptibly, and she hesitated before asking, "Why would he blame you for what happened?"
He was silent for long enough that Marinette started to regret bringing it up. Maybe he wasn't ready to talk about that, not to her, maybe not to anyone. An apology was on the tip of her tongue when he finally spoke. "Because it was my plan that got them killed."
She furrowed her eyebrows. "You don't know that. You said it yourself, you have no idea what went wrong in their mission-"
"That's not how he sees it." He looked up at her then. "I had no clue what I was doing when I broke everyone out of the prison. None. If I could do that, escaping with over thirty prisoners, then why can't five people get in and out of there undetected?" He squinted his eyes as if he was wondering this himself. "Why couldn't they just do what I did? There's only one reason: there was something wrong with what I told them to do."
She listened to his words, her face slackening as she realized what it was, the emotion hiding behind Chat's eyes.
It was guilt.
Chat blamed himself. She always had an inkling of that, but it was never more clear to her than now. Chat completely neglected his health in the wake of Squad D's death, and she understood why.
Everything Chat was going through was nothing compared to the violent death his soldiers faced. Bloody and bruised fists, sleepless nights, fevers, it was inconsequential, and he ignored it all as he invested himself in his work, habitually searching his map as he obsessed over what went wrong.
Chat blamed himself, and apparently his own soldiers blamed him too. But for what? She knew Chat cared deeply for his soldiers, and he even admitted to her that he started their training sessions as a way to escape his worries about their mission.
Was he really at fault? He never meant for them to die.
"Is that how he sees it, or you?" The guilt spread to his entire face, and she reached a hand out to touch his arm. "This wasn't your fault." Her voice was quiet, but it was earnest.
She could see his disagreement before he voiced it. "It is. I'm the one responsible-"
"You're not." Her voice was much more firm now. "You did what you thought was best. You trained and prepared them for that mission, and I know that you spent hours standing here thinking up the best strategy you could that would bring them home alive." She pointed a finger towards the outside. "The royals, they killed those men. They were responsible for that."
Chat was listening, but there was a sadness creeping into his eyes. Marinette dropped her hand to grasp one of his, squeezing it as she held his gaze and tried to communicate what she was saying to him. "You can't shoulder this, Chat," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
He blinked rapidly, trying to compose himself, but his exterior was starting to break. "I have to." He gave a dry laugh, the smile on his face looking so wrong. It was a feeble attempt to escape the emotions building inside, and it didn't take long for his expression to crumble again. His eyes were so vulnerable as they stared back into hers. "I'm supposed to be a symbol of strength to them, but…" He took a shaky breath, closing his eyes before letting it out in a pained sigh. His voice was now nothing more than a whisper, almost as if he was talking to himself. "Every time I walk through the Training Grounds I see… death. I see us going to war, and I see all those lives lost for something we might not ever achieve."
Marinette's heart clenched, and she began to tear up at how helpless he looked. It was like a dam had broken, and all of his doubts and fears came flooding out at once. "Every day, I pass all those people in the Compound, and I see the admiration in their eyes when they look at me, but I don't deserve it. There will come a day when I send their sons, brothers, and fathers to their death. I might put a troop on the front lines, and that decision will take those men away from their loved ones forever. I can hope and I can pray that nobody dies, but people have and will die because of decisions I make." He opened his eyes, and they were glistening with unshed tears. "How can I not shoulder that?"
She didn't notice the trails running down her cheeks; all she was aware of was the man before her, and the pain that was so clear on his face.
There was nothing she could say. Chat was right. He was a symbol of strength, both to her and to all of the people that had followed his lead in hopes of a better life. To the outside world, Chat was the revolution. He was the brave soul that acted alone in the face of adversity, and his courage was what everyone chased after.
He built up this entire world in the woods, this community of people that worked together to keep the system going. All of them credited him for that, and they all had complete and utter faith that he would save them all.
Marinette didn't even consider the fact that Chat was desperately trying to live up to this image he portrayed of himself. He was their idol, and there were so many moving parts to the revolution that her head started spinning at the thought. There were so many expectations, so many responsibilities.
She never considered the enormous pressure that put on him, and right before her eyes, he was caving.
He tried to turn away from her, to hide his face, but she wouldn't let him. She pulled him towards her and wrapped her arms around his neck, securing him in a hug. It didn't take long for him to wrap his arms around her torso, and he buried his face in her shoulder. She felt his breathing becoming irregular as he struggled to contain his emotions, refusing to make a sound. Marinette brought a hand up to run through his soft hair.
She could feel all of it. His pain, his frustration, his guilt. It was only a drop compared to what she knew he was going through, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she continued her soothing motions, another tear escaping her eye. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and his arms tightened as he pulled her closer.
What she was apologizing for, she didn't know. She couldn't fathom him holding onto this, all alone, for who knows how long. These thoughts must have always been with him, but after Squad D, his doubts became real. Her heart ached for him, and she pressed her face into his neck.
"I'm sorry," she whispered again, and they stayed like that. She refused to be the first to pull away; she would give him everything she had if it could ease just a bit of his suffering.
When they did eventually pull apart, there wasn't much more to say. The area under his eyes was slightly wet with partially shed tears. He must have been squeezing his eyes shut to prevent them, and she reached her thumbs under the veil to pat the area dry. Some of his face paint transferred to her fingers, so when she moved to cup his cheek with one of her hands, she was careful not to smear it back on his face.
He let her do this, watching her as she did. His hands came up as he did the same for her. He wiped his thumb across her cheek, where some of her face paint had followed the tracks of her tears. When he was done, he settled one of his hands on the side of her face, just as she was doing.
"I'm glad you talked to me," she said softly.
He smiled weakly. She could tell he wasn't used to being vulnerable like this, and he was processing a lot right now. But still, he stroked her cheek with his thumb as he responded. "So am I." They stayed like that for a moment before Chat spoke again. "You have a big day tomorrow. You should probably get some rest."
She nodded. Deep down, she wanted to stay, but Chat needed some time alone, and she would give him that.
He walked her to the slit in the canvas that led outside. Before she left, she grabbed both of his hands in hers and rose on her tip-toes, kissing him on the cheek. "Try to get some sleep, Chat. Will I see you tomorrow?"
A smile spread across his face, and this time it was genuine. "Of course, M'Lady."
He wished her luck in the East, giving her some last encouraging words before they bid goodnight to each other.
Once Marinette was back in her tent, she collapsed onto her bed and stared up at the canvas ceiling. So much had happened since she was last here, the night evolving into something she hadn't expected. She took a deep breath as she let her mind run through it all again.
Her perspective of Chat was ever changing. There were so many layers to him. She had only seen glimpses of the man behind the mask before, but it felt like he was truly revealing himself to her now. His insecurities, and his vulnerabilities. He trusted her with that. He let her in, and through it all, her feelings for him only grew stronger.
She cared so much about him. He made her feel such a wide range of emotions, from joy and freedom as they danced together to sadness and despair as he confessed to her tonight. Whatever the case may be, she was always there to match him. She was ready to take on his burdens. She was ready to accept every part of him as he slowly revealed them to her, and she would always be there to stand by him.
Marinette hoped that if there was one thing Chat took away from tonight, it was this: You're not alone.
The next chapter is called "The East"